Decentralised Coordination in RoboCup Rescue

Emergency responders are faced with a number of significant challenges when managing major disasters. First, the number of rescue tasks posed is usually larger than the number of responders (or agents) and the resources available to them. Second, each task is likely to require a different level of effort in order to be completed by its deadline. Third, new tasks may continually appear or disappear from the environment, thus requiring the responders to quickly recompute their allocation of resources. Fourth, forming teams or coalitions of multiple agents from different agencies is vital since no single agency will have all the resources needed to save victims, unblock roads, and extinguish the ?res which might erupt in the disaster space. Given this, coalitions have to be efficiently selected and scheduled to work across the disaster space so as to maximise the number of lives and the portion of the infrastructure saved. In particular, it is important that the selection of such coalitions should be performed in a decentralised fashion in order to avoid a single point of failure in the system. Moreover, it is critical that responders communicate only locally given they are likely to have limited battery power or minimal access to long range communication devices. Against this background, we provide a novel decentralised solution to the coalition formation process that pervades disaster management. More specifically, we model the emergency management scenario defined in the RoboCup Rescue disaster simulation platform as a Coalition Formation with Spatial and Temporal constraints (CFST) problem where agents form coalitions in order to complete tasks, each with different demands. In order to design a decentralised algorithm for CFST we formulate it as a Distributed Constraint Optimisation problem and show how to solve it using the state-of-the-art Max-Sum algorithm that provides a completely decentralised message-passing solution. We then provide a novel algorithm (F-Max-Sum) that avoids sending redundant messages and efficiently adapts to changes in the environment. In empirical evaluations, our algorithm is shown to generate better solutions than other decentralised algorithms used for this problem

Coalition Formation with Spatial and Temporal Constraints

The coordination of emergency responders and robots to undertake a number of tasks in disaster scenarios is a grand challenge for multi-agent systems. Central to this endeavour is the problem of forming the best teams (coalitions) of responders to perform the various tasks in the area where the disaster has struck. Moreover, these teams may have to form, disband, and reform in different areas of the disaster region. This is because in most cases there will be more tasks than agents. Hence, agents need to schedule themselves to attempt each task in turn. Second, the tasks themselves can be very complex: requiring the agents to work on them for different lengths of time and having deadlines by when they need to be completed. The problem is complicated still further when different coalitions perform tasks with different levels of efficiency. Given all these facets, we define this as The Coalition Formation with Spatial and Temporal constraints problem (CFSTP).We show that this problem is NP-hard—in particular, it contains the wellknown complex combinatorial problem of Team Orienteering as a special case. Based on this, we design a Mixed Integer Program to optimally solve small-scale instances of the CFSTP and develop new anytime heuristics that can, on average, complete 97% of the tasks for large problems (20 agents and 300 tasks). In so doing, our solutions represent the first results for CFSTP

Is maraunding an integral component of war?

У статті розглянуто проблему такого явища як мародерство. Пояснено, в чому полягає різниця між крадіжкою і мародерством. Запропоновано ймовірні шляхи боротьби з даним явищем.The article considers the problem of such a phenomenon as marauding. Explained the difference between theft and marauding. Suggested possible ways to deal with this phenomenon

Functioning of the student dormitory during war

Розглянуто питання функціонування студентських гуртожитків в умовах дії правового режиму воєнного стану. Досліджені загальні правила безпеки громадян під час воєнного стану, зокрема, під час воєнного стану, запровадженого в Україні 24 лютого 2022 року у зв’язку з повномасштабною російсько-українською війною. Надано поради з безпечного проживання студентів та їх сімей в гуртожитках, що знаходяться в неокупованих містах.The issues of functioning of student dormitories in the conditions of the martial law regime is considered. The general rules of security of citizens during martial law, in particular, during the martial law imposed in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 in connection with the full-scale russian-ukrainian war, are studied. Advice on safe living of students and their families in dormitories located in unoccupied cities is provided